The product document “Sonderausgabe telcom report and Siemens Magazin Com: ISDN im Büro—HICOM [Special issue telecommunications report and Siemens Magazine Corn: ISDN in the office—HICOM]”, Siemens AG, Berlin and Munich, 1985, in particular pages 32 to 37, discloses a communications system with a private HICOM communications device in which it is possible to remotely administer or maintain the HICOM communications device from a control center which is external to the communications system, via what is referred to as an operations and data server connected to the communications device. Via the remote administration or remote maintenance it is possible, for example, to implement new applications for the communications device in the communications device without the use of personnel in situ so that, on the one hand, a shorter reaction time to requests for modifications from customers is obtained and, on the other hand, an increased level of availability of the communications device is achieved.
In modern communications systems, a communications device has multiple connections to a local computer network, referred to frequently in the literature as a LAN (Local Area Network), via which the communications device is connected to a multiplicity of data processing devices; for example, personal computers or what are referred to as workstations. Control and maintenance of the devices connected to such a local computer network is generally performed manually in situ on the respective devices.
Alternatively, Landru J. et al.: “Modular Open Network Agent for Control Operations” IEEE Network Operations and Management Symposium, US, New York, N.Y., IEEE Vol. Conf. 10, Feb. 15, 1998, XP000799531, ISBN: 0-7803-4352-2, discloses, in particular on pages 600 to 609, a universal network management subscriber interface by which access to a “Network Management Station (NMS)” connected to a local network can be carried out from an external data processing device. Here, an “HTTP request” is transferred from the external data processing device (“remote administrator with a web browser”) to a “web server” arranged in the local network. The “web server” transfers a corresponding “CGI request” to the “Network Management Station (NMS)” which, in turn, transfers a corresponding “NMP request” to the device (“managed equipment”) to be controlled. In response to the “NMP request”, the device to be controlled transmits an “NMP response” to the “Network Management Station (NMS)” which, in turn, transfers a corresponding “CGI response” to the “web server”. Finally, the “web server” transmits an “HTTP response” to the external data processing device at which the contents of the “HTTP response” can be displayed in the form of an HTML page. However, owing to the multiplicity of messages to be transferred and the multiplicity of devices involved in the method, the method described entails extremely high expenditure.
The present invention is, therefore, directed toward a method which makes it possible to control the devices connected to a local computer network from a central device with relatively low expenditure.